Spatial Sound—History, Principle, Progress and Challenge

The aim of spatial sound or spatial audio is to reproduce the spatial information of sound, so as to recreate the desired spatial auditory events or perceptions. Recently, spatial sound becomes a hot topic in the fields of acoustics, signal processing, and communication. A series of spatial sound techniques have been developed and applied to a wide area of scientific research, engineering, and amusement. The history, principle, progress and applications of spatial sound technique are comprehensively reviewed in this article. Especially, spatial sound techniques based on different principles are united within the framework of spatial sampling and reconstruction theorem of sound field. The challenges and prospects of spatial sound are also addressed.